A total of 17,982,600 foreign tourists visited Greece in the first seven months of the year, boosting travel receipts to 10.953 billion euros, according to data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG).
In the period January-July 2024, the travel balance showed a surplus of 9.309 billion euros, against a surplus of 9.006 billion euros in the corresponding period last year.
Travel receipts up 5.6%
Travel receipts increased by 577.5 million euros (+5.6%) and amounted to 10.953 million euros, while an increase of 274.5 million euros (+20%) was also observed in travel payments, which amounted to 1.644 billion euros. However, July had a negative sign as travel receipts decreased by 4.2% compared to the corresponding month of 2023.
5.7% reduction in travel spending
According to the BoG, the increase in travel receipts in the 7-month period is due to the increase in inbound travel traffic by 11.2%, as the average expenditure per trip decreased by 5.7%. Net receipts from the provision of travel services offset by 45.8% the deficit in the goods balance and contributed 81.7% to the total net receipts from services.
Inbound traveller flows
The number of travelers from Germany rose by 13.2% to 2,604.6 thousand, as did the number of travelers from France, by 5.2% to 1,064.5 thousand. Travelers from Italy moved higher by 13.8% to 990.7 thousand. Turning to other countries, travelers from the United Kingdom increased by 8.1% to 2,266.1 thousand, the number of travelers from the United States rose by 6.9% to 788.6 thousand while the number of travelers from Russia fell by 54.2% to 9.0 thousand.
